Dorisa Deflates a Mattress, May as Well Have Punched Elmo in the Face

Holy moly have we done a lot lately.

A family picture!

I am incredibly thankful to nice people in the congregation- because of them I am now gainfully employed. I had a play-date a couple weeks ago and mentioned that I would like to have a job and lo and behold, her husband is an appraiser and needed an assistant. I started last Friday and went to a couple houses with him and this week I've been doing training regarding filling out the reports- which will be my main duty. I think it is going well so far and I’m enjoying the work. There is still a lot I have to learn, but every report gets easier, so that’s a good sign. He mostly works from home, so right now I’m working there (about a mile away) but eventually I should be able to do most of my work from home. It will not be a full time job, but he is offering very fair pay and I think that it is a good fit for my life right now.

Obligatory first day of daycare picture. And then he charged at me.

Oskar started daycare yesterday. It was a lot harder for me than I thought it would be. Once I arrived at work I got over it pretty quick, but it was a tough morning. The woman who is watching him seems incredibly nice and was super kind when I dropped him off while trying not to cry (result: unsuccessful). Oskar got in there right away and was playing with the other kids. There is one little boy there who is a month older and goes to our church, so that is pretty cool. Oskar did pretty well. He got sad a couple times, but it passed. Lunch didn’t go great, but that’s okay, he will in no way starve any time soon. We skipped today but he will go back tomorrow. I thought it might be nice to ease him in to the situation instead of a sudden daycare attack. The only downside is that I think I’m allergic to something in her house. Oskar doesn’t seem to be affected. We’ll see if it continues.

We were graced with the presence of good friends a couple weekends ago. We got ranched (my new term for eating Pizza Ranch), explored the Falls, went on a couple walks and witnessed the beginning of the Hot Harley Nights Parade. That last one was accidental. We just saw the beginning as we walked back to the Falls after dinner, but it started with 15-20 Harleys riding down one of the main downtown streets with giant American flags on the back of each one. No idea where it went from there. People had spots staked out for a couple hours before it even started though so apparently it’s a pretty big deal. It was a really fun weekend. It’s nice to have friends visit. This is where the mattress bit comes in. I was putting away our Aerobed after our guests left and Oskar saw me lay on it to get the air out and just started wailing. It was probably the worst day of his life.

Before plants...

Dan’s parents came last week to help us do some landscaping. We went to the awesome garden/wine store and bought a lot of plants and came back and went to work. I can’t remember if I mentioned this before or not, but there is a nursery in town that has an amazing selection of plants, a super interesting layout, kitties walking around like they own the place AND they sell wine. Pretty sure they win. Anyways, the flowers have helped, but we still have lots of outdoor work to do. hopefully we can get some rock out there soon- as classy as the fabric looks, I think we can do better. A couple of the tall purple plants are having trouble standing up so I need to help them out a bit until they sober up and figure out what is going on. We also got some other things done last week, like the wood panelectomy, some superficial electrical updates AND we got some of our painted shut windows to open. This all happened in an incredibly exhausting 2 days. 

After plants!

That's all for now, I guess. Here is another picture of Oskar to send you on your way:

We got this super fuzzy blanket from our Realtor and Oskar can not get enough of it.
He often enjoys reading on his own as well.

“Youthful-Looking” Friend Pal Makes the Front Page

This was a while ago now, but my friend was featured in the local newspaper, The Brandon Valley Challenger. He was interviewed by the entire staff of the paper! The staff is a woman named Jill. I thought it was a nice little article. The senior pastor was also interview when he got here a couple years ago, so it isn't uncommon for a new person to be featured, but I don’t think they do a write up when someone gets a job at Sunshine Foods. Although maybe they might if there is new owner.

Anyway, if you click on the picture I think it will open it larger in a new window- give it a read!

Dorisa Provides an Update for the Masses

There is a new show on ID that is called Southern Fried Homicide. Someone somewhere is getting paid for coming up with this stuff and I’m wondering why it isn't me.

After weeks of chaos, the job hunt has begun. It is not going well. That’s about all I can say about that.

I think I remember a time when I sat down to eat meals, and I'm almost
certain I didn't used to eat my Thai food in the bathroom.

We closed on our house on the 20^th (after living here for 20 days) and I am thoroughly enjoying home ownership. There are all sorts of projects on my to do list and now that we FINALLY went and bought bedroom furniture, I think we will spend the time from now to when it gets delivered sanding and painting and cleaning the bedroom. Hooray! Other big projects we hope to get done soon include radon mitigation, an egress window for a basement bedroom and another inspection for our foundation. This will be followed by a wood panelectomy in the basement. The situation is critical.

We had a temporary ant infestation that has been cleared by the magic of Terro. We have since discovered a couple new bugs lurking about. We are not quite sure what they are...

I cleaned out parts of our gutters the other day. This was extremely exciting and included me saying, “It smells like terrible rotting life,” and “Oooh! Something is growing over there!” Needless to say, I was successful in clearing the issue. Oddly enough, it had nothing to do with neither the rotting life nor the growth experiment.

Sent Dan up to take a look, Oskar thought he needed to help.

I have also participated in standard lawn maintenance. I have learned many things here.

1.  If you think the blade of your mover will hit the root of a tree sticking out of the ground, you are probably right.

2. Our yard has many stealthy holes in it. MANY.

3. The front yard may look flat, but it is a liar.

4. Sticks hurt.

On the left is the garbage can I registered for and received for our wedding.
On the right is a shower curtain left in the linen closet of our new house by the previous owner.
Destiny.

Through all this I have been surprised by Oskar. Well, he often surprises me, but I was especially pleased with his reaction to the move. He and I arrived at the house alone. I hesitantly worked my way into the house through doors that were left open for us (It’s a small town, who needs keys?). We were told the house would be empty, but I really didn't want to barge in on anyone so I called in and received no reply. I put Oskar down and he just went nuts; exploring all the rooms, running and laughing. He loves his room and even spends some time now and then playing in there alone. It is still teal and lime green, but we will get around to changing that eventually, I’m almost sure of it.

I promise that I will eventually post pictures of our house. It will just take a little time. I hope to do more regular posts as well. Again, it should get a bit easier now that we are a little settled in and will be spending more than 5 days in a row in our house.